Royal Reels: Gambling

Islands

MELBOURNE to FANNING ISLAND WRAPPER

This ordinary Australian newspaper wrapper (H & G # E16), the 1d green Queen Elizabeth “Newspaper Only”, with five lines of instructions was upgraded with the ½d orange kangaroo stamp, and was sent from Melbourne in 1941 to Mr. Frank MCay, Cable Station, Fanning Island. There was no indication of what newspaper was enclosed nor of the sender’s name and address (Figure 1). In 1798, Captain Edmund Fanning, captain of

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LETTER to N. R. JAMES, ADELAIDE from NAMATANAI, NEW IRELAND

This fine cover is addressed to Mr. James, c/o Weather Bureau, G.P.O. ADELAIDE, South Australia. It has a red Registration label of Rabaul/ Deutsch-Neuguinea, a purple hand-stamped Crown over an oval PASSED CENSOR/ initials/ RABAUL, and the two stamps a green 3d Roo and a brown 5d KGV Head both have the N.W./ PACIFIC/ ISLANDS overprint, as well as 2 purple NAMATANAI/ 18 AU 18/ , an early unworn state

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LETTER from ENGLAND to MISS ROSSITER, STARVATION FLAT, NORFOLK ISLAND

This cover was sent from England with the grey wing-margin 6d stamp S.G. 147, plate 15, issued in 1876 with postmark dated AP 4/ 77, the barred numeral and town name being largely illegible. It was sent ‘via San Francisco’ and ‘via New Zealand’ to Miss Rossiter, Starvation Flat, Norfolk Island. The reverse was not seen but had a transit mark of Auckland. The vendor said that inward mail was

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ICELAND: LETTER from MICHAEL H. CASHMORE, MANLY N.S.W. to AKUREYRI

The cover has a registration label SYDNEY B/ NEW SOUTH WALES and the grey 6d ‘AIR MAIL SERVICE’ stamp is cancelled G.P.O SYDNEY/ R.S./ 15 AP 40A/ B/ N.S.W. AUST. It is addressed to Mr. Gudmundur Mikaelsson, P.O. Box 14, Akureyri, Iceland. The red printing reads: If unclaimed return to/ M.H. Cashmore, 10 Woods Parade, Manly N.S.W. (Figure 1). The reverse has four postmarks (from L to R) a reception

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GOUGH ISLAND SCIENTIFIC SURVEY 1955-1956

This island came to my attention in an eBay auction. Two Tristan Da Cunha QEII pictorials are postmarked Gough Island / */ 22 FE/ 56/ South Atlantic on an airmail registered cover with a Tristan Da Cunha registration label and a boxed GOUGH ISLAND/ SCIENTIFIC SURVEY/ 1955-1956 marking. The cover was addressed to a Landsborough, N(orth) C(oast) Line, Queensland address and it is probably of philatelically contrived origin(Figure 1). A

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FIRST DAY COVER to RABI ISLAND, FIJI from TOOWOOMBA, QUEENSLAND

Rabi Island (pronounced Rambi) is not the smallest inhabited island in the Pacific Ocean, but it could probably boast that it is the smallest inhabited Pacific island with the most extensive information on the internet. This F.D.C. was issued on 10 May 1937 with the Die I 1d green Q.E. and 2d red Die I KGVI stamps, was postmarked TOOWOOMBA/ 9-A10 MY 37/ QUEENSLAND, and was addressed to B. Cobham

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ERNEST ALFRED CROME, “JOINT FATHER of AEROPHILATELY”

This cover has been seen on 3 different websites, but two distinct copies were involved. These two were almost totally identical, and both were prepared by E.A. CROME, c/o J. Dougherty, Esq., Mission Station, Mornington Island, Gulf of Carpentaria. The 2d red KGVI head stamp is postmarked G.P.O. SYDNEY/ AIR/3-P21DE39/ 5/ N.S.W-AUST and there is a black manuscript “Received by parachute/ 23/12/39/ John Dougherty” with a purple handstamp MORNINGTON ISLAND.

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COCOS ISLANDS by AIR MAIL to WOODSTOCK, VERMONT, U.S.A.

This cover has an AIR MAIL vignette in English, French, Chinese and Arabic and has 4 stamps totaling 2/- (shillings) comprising the green 1/- platypus, brown 6d kookaburra, purple1d Q.E. and the blue 5d Australian Antarctic Territory Explorers at the Magnetic South Pole stamp, cancelled with 2 copies of the COCOS (KEELING) ISLANDS/ INDIAN/ 2 11 AU 61 2/ OCEAN/ AUST postmark. The reverse has no postal markings, but the senders name is

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CANTON ISLAND CENSORED WW2 COVER to AMATEUR RADIO STATION, MISSENT to CANTON CHINA via VICTORIA, HONG KONG

This World War 2 censored cover has a blue 3d King George VI Australian definitive stamp postmarked with a slogan cancel which reads ‘ENCOURAGE/ YOUR/ DEFENCE FORCES associated with an unusually shaped datemark, certainly due to two superimposed cancels, a square boxed Australian postmark overlaid with a circular postmark which was applied in China. What is near-illegible is BRISBANE followed byQ’LAND/ 830AM/ 30 MCH/ 1940. The same circular postmark was

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C. PACE, SLIEMA WHARF, SLIEMA, MALTA

This interesting cover never quite delivered on the excitement I experienced when I first found it. The total postage of 6d was made up of six low-value Australian stamps and it was sent from Sydney Airmail on 8 MY 39 to C. Pace Esq., 80 Sliema Wharf, Sliema, Malta and it had a manuscript routing of Australia-Italy-Malta. It had a purple boxed tax marking for 20 centimes(Figure 1). It had

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